<html><body><font face="Helvetica">Thank you Gary.<br><br>Marci<br><br>Sent from XFINITY Connect Mobile App<br><br><br>------ Original Message ------<br><br>From: blindtlk@nfbnet.org<br>To: blindtlk@nfbnet.org<br>Cc: Gary Wunder<br>Sent: January 20, 2016 at 10:44 AM<br>Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] non 24<br><br>Well, it sounds like most of us have an opinion about this subject. I don't<br>have anything new to say about the motives of Vanda, the studies they used,<br>or whether we should be accepting sponsorships for the convention. I do<br>think we have to ask ourselves a very hard question: what message are we<br>happy with about blindness if it doesn't come from us? I'm in the business<br>of putting out our message as the editor of the Braille Monitor, so I love<br>that message very much, but should we turn thumbs down on a guide dog school<br>that decides to do radio advertising in order to give the blind greater<br>mobility and that ad features a blind woman talking about the isolation she<br>experienced and how she now moves about in her community? If a radio ad<br>decides to promote a reading machine for the blind and a blind person talks<br>about how it has changed her life because once she had stacks of mail that<br>she didn't know how to get through and this new machine has given her<br>tremendous independence, would we object on the grounds that she is implying<br>that blind people without the machine can't handle paperwork? <br><br>Like most statements that can be made, there is some truth in almost<br>everything. Does the action of one blind person affect all blind people? Of<br>course not. If it did, Mike Freeman's successful performance as a computer<br>programmer would have meant that all discrimination against computer<br>programmers who are blind would have ceased almost four decades ago. Does<br>the fact that one blind person abusively swears at someone who offers help<br>mean that nobody gets offered help? Of course not. Is it true that we are<br>watched and that we can to some degree positively or negatively affect what<br>people think about others who are blind? Yes, but again, this is all a<br>matter of degree.<br><br>I think we should give be employers and members of the general public some<br>credit for exercising the same intelligence we do when listening to<br>advertisements, reading pamphlets, or being persuaded by someone with a<br>definite point of view. We filter it, think about it, and we do our best to<br>go beyond what we are able to perceive as our biases and prejudices. I think<br>we have tried in our literature to answer the questions is literature<br>against us, is history against us, and is the public against us. I think the<br>answer is no. We are not at the top of the stairs, but at least we are<br>climbing, and I think that getting to the top of the stairs means being as<br>honest as we can about the problems that we face and our ability to solve<br>them if we work together. <br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>blindtlk mailing list<br>blindtlk@nfbnet.org<br>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org<br>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindtlk:<br>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/mjc59%40comcast.net<br></font></body></html>